Top Dawg Entertainment President Punch discussed Kendrick Lamar’s departure from the record label during a recent interview with Mic. Punch clarified that Lamar is a “grown man” now and is ready to “build his own thing.”
“I don’t even know if I would describe it that way as ready to leave, as more so ready to build his own thing. That’s a grown man right now. We watched him grow from a teenager up into an established grown man, a businessman, and one of the greatest artists of all time. So how long do you actually be signed up under somebody? It’s been almost 20 years. So it’s time to move on and try new things and venture out,”
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Punch also reflected on the group Black Hippy and admitted he regrets not being able to put together an album with all the artists involved.
“We definitely wanted to do a Black Hippy album. But it was such a learning experience for us, everything was new. The timing never really panned out. When one guy would be recording his album, another guy would be on tour. Everybody was never in the same timeframe. So we didn’t want to hold back; we wanted to keep going and just push further into their individual careers. In hindsight, I wish I would’ve pushed the Black Hippy album more. That was always my goal, personally. You would have to ask everybody individually to see if that’s what their goal was.”
Lamar announced that his upcoming album will be his last with TDE back in August 2021.
[Via]